“Won’t it be too greasy if it was braised?”

The few of them stared at the abalone in a daze. After all, it was a side dish that had to be covered with tea. If it was too greasy, it would affect the overall taste.

Li Qing said, “Should we fry it crispy?”

Zhang Tong shook his head and rejected the idea, “The moment the crisp is in contact with the soup, it would become soft.”

“Let’s make a white-blanched one.” An idea came to Xu Le’s mind. He said, “The white-blanched abalone will have its original taste retained. It would still be crispy and chewy. When placed on the tea noodles, it won’t steal the limelight.”

“Good idea!”

Zhang Tong nodded repeatedly and thought to himself, ‘Why didn’t I think of doing this?’

Then, his admiration for Xu Le increased.

The processed abalone was stripped of its internal organs, pressed from above, and sliced horizontally with a knife.

After they were cut, water was poured into the pot, salt and peanut oil were added, and the abalone slices were boiled for about 20 seconds.

At this moment, the abalone slices were cooked but tasteless. They were drizzled with a little oyster sauce and doused in boiling oil.

Amidst the sizzling sounds, the abalone slices curled up and had a layer of golden oil on it. The tender fragrance was immediately produced.

Li Qing picked up a piece. The abalone was thin and chewy. After tasting it carefully, there was only the taste of salt. To a large extent, it retained the freshness and tenderness of the ingredients.

At this moment, Shen Hui finally finished making the oil noodles. The noodles used to make the tea noodles were alkali noodles. They needed to be kneaded first before being cut and steamed until it was medium-cooked and mixed with oil. Then, she would take the required portions for each serving and put them into a slotted spoon. It would be ready after cooking in boiling water.

After the noodles were cooked, he placed abalone slices on top and poured a large spoonful of tea soup.

After the tea sauce was cooked and peanut sauce was added, it was poured into a pot and simmered in bone soup. After it was cooked through, the sweet, savory, and spicy texture of the tea coupled with the mellow fragrance of the peanuts seeped into the thick soup. The soup base was delicious. When evenly wrapped with noodles and abalone, it warmed the throat and the stomach.

By now, the lychee meat, soy sauce fish, and tea noodles were all ready. As for the Dongpo Tofu, it was the easiest dish to make. Xu Le planned to leave it at the end. He looked at the remaining ingredients. There were eggplant, minced meat, green garlic… and half a basket of chestnuts.

Xu Le said, “The dishes we prepared include a meat and vegetable dish, so it should be enough. We are just missing one dessert.”

“Do you want to make dessert with chestnuts?”

Li Qing stepped forward to help. “Will it be too rushed?”

It would take an hour or more to bake a cake or steam any pastries.

Xu Le paused for a moment and said, “Let’s make a hazelnut chestnut soup.”

As he spoke, he opened a chestnut to test its freshness. Li Qing’s eyes widened and he asked curiously, “Why are you eating it raw?”

“Chestnuts… can’t be eaten raw?”

Xu Le was stumped by his question. He handed one over and said, “Try it.”

Li Qing grew up in the north. Their customs were different, so their tastes were naturally worlds apart.

“In my hometown, chestnuts are stir-fried with sugar, boiled or steamed.”

Li Qing put the chestnut into his mouth skeptically. After chewing twice, he frowned and said, “It’s not delicious.”

“I didn’t say that raw chestnuts are delicious.” Xu Le tasted the pulp that seeped out of the chestnuts and said, “It’s like chestnuts from Huairou, very fresh and sweet.”

“Hey, don’t spit it out. When eating the chestnut raw, you should chew it into a pulp. It will nourish the kidney.” After Xu Le explained, he said, “The chestnut needs to be peeled. Cut it open first and then put it in boiling water for five minutes, then it will be easier to peel. There’s so many chestnuts, let’s peel it together.”

At this point in the competition, more than three hours had passed. The number of viewers online continued increasing instead of decreasing.

“Which one is Xu Le? I just came from watching ‘Chinese restaurant’.”

“Same.”

“Same for me.”

“Ahhh, he’s really cute! He’s cooking seriously!”

“Of course, he’s not faking it. That child really knows how to cook.”

“He even won many awards!”

“When is the Master Chef showing his face? The live broadcast is making me so anxious!”

“Why aren’t the assistants helping and he’s the only one working on the Master Chef’s side?”

“Isn’t this a little against the rules? Xu Le has four people cooking, and there’s only him on the Master Chef’s side…”

“The program had assigned him assistants, but he didn’t use them.”

The live broadcast on the left only revealed a pair of fair hands working with a close-up shot of the table. That person was efficient, skilled, and organized. The dishes were quickly presented.

Because he had to make hundreds of servings of dishes for the live audience, it was impossible for a person to handle it alone. Hence, someone started to cry out for justice on the bullet screen.

“Is there a conspiracy in the show?”

“Why aren’t the assistants helping? There are so many people standing at the side watching!”

“They must be deliberately making things difficult for him in order to promote Xu Le as a celebrity chef!”

“Can’t the production team give an explanation?”

All of the responses fell into the eyes of the producer, Chen Yeqi. He was very satisfied with the response of the audience. After most of them raised their questions, he said into his earpiece, “Little Liu, explain a little to them.”

“Good evening, everyone! Everyone in the live broadcast room, there will be an online vote tomorrow night. 1,000 votes online will be equivalent to 10 votes by the live audience, and 10 votes by the live audience will be equivalent to each vote by the judges. Please vote more and support your favorite contestant.”

The host’s impassioned voice suddenly exploded. Li Qing, who was focused on peeling the chestnuts, was shocked and the chestnuts rolled to the ground. He cursed softly and lowered his head to pick them up.

After standing up, he said impatiently, “You can vote online without even tasting the dishes cooked. There’s really something wrong with this rule. They are really doing whatever they want.”

“Shh.”

Xu Le motioned for him to stop talking nonsense.

Li Qing said rebelliously, “Hmph, why don’t you be in charge of singing tomorrow? I’ll dance a popular dance to attract votes. Let’s not cook anymore and just do a talent show.”

“You…” Shen Hui couldn’t help but laugh. She stopped him and said,” There’s a microphone on your clothes. Beware that they might broadcast what you said. ”

Seeing that the timing was about right, the host said, “Every contestant will be matched with three assistants, but there are also differences in individual ability. If one person can deal with it, then the assistant doesn’t need to play a role at all.”

Li Qing, who had just calmed down, raised his eyebrows and said, “Master Xu, do you feel that he’s implying something?”

“How would I know?”

Xu Le’s attitude was calm. Anyway, it was the production team’s rule to have an assistant. Besides, it was not against the rules. In the end, only the results of the competition matter. There was no need to argue with them now.

“Don’t tell me the Master Chef didn’t use his assistants?” Zhang Tong said after delayed realization, “How can he be able to cope?”

Xu Le ignored him and said, “After peeling all the chestnuts, put them in the pot and cook them for ten minutes. I guarantee that the texture will be smoother after they are cooked.”

The chestnuts were cooked, rinsed under cold water, put in the shell-breaking machine and set to work.

After crushing the chestnuts, Li Qing found a sieve to filter them.

“Wait a minute, use the 40cm sieve.”

“Must it be so exact?”

Li Qing muttered and found a 40cm sieve.